50 Years Gone By

[eagle eye]

It was speculated at the time of its release that the song "American Pie" was about JFK. That was among the many theories about that song but it turned out it was primarily about the death of Buddy Holly. Don't know who Buddy Holly was? Google him but, if you're from Texas shame on you for not knowing his death was the "day the music died". The reason I made reference to JFK (if you don't know who JFK is you really need to read a book or two) was because this Friday, to the day, will be the 50th anniversary of the assisination of an American president. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper's deaths in a plane crash in 1959 was tragic but at the time the murder of John F Kennedy was characterized as the end of hope in America. The subject of his assisination is still subject of debate even today for those who feel there was a massive conspiracy involved in planning and executing the killing of a president who was maybe the last real 'man of the people'. A rich man who genuinely cared about the poor and wanted to do something to made the lives Americans better. Kennedy was at the forefront of programs like the Peace Corp, welfare, desegregation, equality and it's been coming to light that he was working toward disengaging from the coming mess he saw coming in Viet Nam. Who knows what the 60's would have been like if he had lived. You never know but I like to think this world would have been a better place. It is for certain that no other president has been as revered as JFK since his death in 1963.

You don't think about the stigma Dallas, and Texas in general, lived under after that Friday afternoon. In the link below to an article from DC.com's Mickey Spagnola he tells what it was like for the Cowboys who, like the rest of the NFL, played their scheduled game 2 days later. As Mickey explains it was different for the Dallas Cowboys.

 

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/article-RowanKavner/Spagnola-Nov-22-1963-A-Day-You-Never-Forget/7427ede7-ce3c-4686-b05b-5fdc803396f6